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An office for a day Issue 32 - Jul 07 Filippo Sarti, CEO, Regus Asia, offers insight into the challenges of operating one of Asia’s largest serviced office providers. Every day 150,000 people across the world walk into a Regus serviced office, and expect to experience a top notch corporate office with the best quality service. Delivering this to customers in the Asian Pacific region, while maintaining a breakneck pace of expansion, is all in a day’s work for Filippo Sarti. In fact, he could probably deliver a master-class for professionals involved in sourcing, selecting or project managing office openings or relocation. Sarti is currently responsible for the 91 office locations, or 1.5 to 2 mil sqf of space, that Regus operate from Pakistan to New Zealand and everywhere in between. Clearly, real estate and facilities management are high on the agenda, “Trying to develop a business in the territory means that there is always a RE or FM issue going on” he says. more than a room with a view When asked as to how to strategically differentiate the Regus offering from competitors, Sarti straight away points to the number of locations which he can offer to clients. He says that the goal is “To use our global footprint to try and change the way companies manage their real estate”. This means offering a complete, flexible worldwide service, so that “If you have 20,000 sqf in London, and you want to move 5,000 of that to Kuala Lumpur, we can make that happen”, he explains. We are opening a new business centre every one and a half weeks or thereabouts. The onward march of globalisation has helped Regus to rapidly develop, as companies of all sizes find themselves doing business in diverse locations where they need to swiftly establish an office presence. The other benefit of a global network is that it provides smaller enterprises mobility on a grand scale. This makes a global network a key objective, with the goal that “Clients can use any Regus centre, anywhere in the world to work from, giving them their own office network if they’re traveling or even at home.” says Sarti. role out plan In line with the strategy of a global network, Sarti oversees an ambitious expansion plan. “We are opening a new business centre every one and a half weeks or thereabouts somewhere within the region. This involves the acquisition programme, implementation of that site through fit-out and then getting the centres operational”, he explains. With in-house teams across Asia continuously working with local partners to scout new sites, Sarti must have a unique insight into the regional markets. He says “There are 120 plus cities in Asia where we could have a presence over time. We have a presence in 35 of them”		There is a huge amount of research and financial modeling for each site, so Sarti and his team “Will probably have to look at 300 potential sites to get the ultimate 50 in any given year.
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However, despite this potential, “We don’t have an opening programme which says we have to have opened a particular number by a certain time” says Sarti. Expansion without making sure the economic fundamentals are solid would not be good business, so it is very important that there is a clearly defined case for each and every office site that is given the go ahead. There is a huge amount of research and financial modeling for each site, so Sarti and his team “Will probably have to look at 300 potential sites to get the ultimate 50 in any given year”. setting up shop Once a location is chosen, Regus need to have a refined process to facilitate the development of the site. Sarti explains, “We have to have ways to deliver our business centres in a rapid roll-out programme. That means being highly organised from the design of the centres into spaces we select, right through the tender process”. This requires Regus to maintain a large portfolio of pre-qualified partners who can deliver projects on a turn-key basis. While Regus needs to be a well-oiled global machine, it does not take a cookie-cutter approach to fit-out and design, Sarti notes “It’s fundamentally not practical for some components to be shipped globally and frankly there are regional tastes and regional differences that you have to take account of”. Instead it is important for each centre to have a similar look and feel, so even if the lobby furnishings in L.A. do not match the ones in Sydney, customers can tell they are in a Regus centre. an environmental service As with most corporations, environmental concerns are part and parcel of the job. This starts right from the site selection stage for Sarti, “Where we can, we will look for the best environmentally sound structures, subject to them being in the right locations and delivering successfully for us”. Sadly, this does not seem to be the case across all the Asian markets, but as economies develop, Sarti sees better options becoming available, noting that in his experience: “The more mature, the more developed a market is and, frankly, the more mature and developed the developer is, you will find structures having been designed with environmental issues in mind”. Where Regus can make a real environmental difference is fusing in the use of technology with a complete global network to greatly reduce traveling requirements for employees. “We’re certainly seeing that our customer base is looking for better real estate strategies that prevent mass movement of their own workforce”. The implementation of VOIP, broadband on demand or enhanced video conference technology will allow for this issue to be faced. While this may seem far-fetched to many business travelers, Sarti points to recent Regus partnerships with IBM and Cisco for telepresence video conference technology and VOIP as the first steps toward a new way of doing business. utilising knowledge Knowing your customer is crucial to the success of any business, but for Sarti the next step is using that knowledge to develop your strategy. Regus are in the enviable position of working with everybody from multinational conglomerates to one-man start-ups. Not only that, but they come from across all industries. As Sarti explains, “It doesn’t matter if you are a technology company, a utilities company, a financial services company or a consultant. The bottom line (when shopping for a business centre) is what you’re looking for is great customer service, increased flexibility and cost effectiveness, and the ability not to have to invest into your own real estate for 100 percent of your needs”. Using this basic precept, Regus listens to what their customers have to say, “We have a system to capture customer enquiries very systematically within the business so that we understand where the demand is coming from”. This gives Regus a basis upon which to develop their offering and match the market at just the right point. As for what the future holds, it seems like expansion will be in another direction rather than just further locations, as Sarti concludes: “At the moment we’re building traditional Regus business centres, but we are looking to change some of the models and provide different products to the market”. As for whether the end result will meet the expectation depends on, in Sarti’s words: “Hard work, exclamation mark”. RFP		Our customer base is looking for better real estate strategies that prevent mass movement of their own workforce.

ISSN 1994-9464
Key title: RFP magazine
Abbreviated key title: RFP mag.

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